President Putin of Russia says he has ordered his military to start withdrawing most of its forces from Syria. The Russia Defense Ministry said the air campaign had helped Syrian government forces recapture more than 400 towns and villages. Sara Rainford is in Moscow. Russia's withdrawal from Syria is as much of a surprise as the start of airstrikes there. But almost 6 months after intervening to back up his ally Bassar al-Assad, president Putin says Russia troops have turned for tide in Syria's conflicts, and it's time to bring them home. By intervening so dramatically in Syria, Vladmir Putin made it clear that Russia today is prepared to assert its interests. He's ensured that Moscow have a far greater say now in the Syrian peace talks. Here at home, the operation is being presented as a great success. President Assad has issued a statement saying he agreed with the move to reduce Russia's military presence. From Damascus, Lyse Doucet reports. We will never really know exactly what went on behind the scenes, but we do know is that Russia has played an absolutely critical role in the Syrian conflict, so much so that it's been infuriating Washington, London and other western capitals, essentially by getting away with it, bombing the positions of some of the very opposition groups that the West would like to include at the negotiating table, and also have played a crucial role in organizing this truce which unexpectedly is largely holding in its third week. President Obama has spoken to Mr. Putin over the phone about the partial withdraw of Russian forces from Syria. The While House said they discuss the next steps require to fully implement the cessation of hostilities. One of the main Syrian opposition group has welcomed the news. The spokesman for what was called the High Negotiations Committee said if Moscow implemented the withdrawal, the move will put pressure on president Assad's government. All this came with the end of the first day of the lastest round of Syrian peace talks in Geneva.
Venezuela's Attorney General has announced that search teams have retrieved the remains of 4 of 28 gold miners, who had been missing for more than a week. Forensic experts and search teams are continuing to look for more bodies in the location, a remote jungle area near the border with Guyana. Our American editor Leonard Russia has more. The Venezuelan government initially dismissed the claims from relatives that the 28 miners had been missing. The local governor accused the opposition of fabricating a story for political reasons in a deeply polarized conutry. But the evidence was overwhelming. And within a few days, troops were sent to the area. The authorities believed they were brutally killed by a criminal gang that controls most of the illegal gold mining in the area. And an arrest warrant was issued for the gang leader, known as the Mole. World news from the BBC.
Macedonia police and soldiers has detained hundreds of migrants who marched from a makeshift camp in northern Greece and used ropes to forward swift flowing over to skirt the border fence. The police said the man, women and children would be send back to Greece. There've been stranded as a overcrowd camp along with about 12,000 other migrants.
The Brazillian president Dilma Rousseff has appointed a new Justice Minister, the third person to occupy the role in less than a month. Eugenio de Aragao takes control of the ministry after his predecessor was forced out by the Supreme Court. In Feburary another Justice Minister resigned, amid a row over his perceived failure to curb a growing corruption investigation that had shaken the government.
Scientists say they have made a discovery which helps them understand how Tyrannosaurus rex became one of the most fearsome dinosaurs to reign the earth. Remains found in a remote desert in northern Uzbekistan, belong to a newly identified species from Tyrannosaur family called Timurlengia which predated T-rex by about 20 million years. Doctor H, of London's Natural History Museum, says the remains show Tyrannosaurs became intelligent before becoming big. Timurlengia is a horse-sized animal. These predators became much smarter, much more advanced, in terms of some sensoric capacities before they attained the giant heights, that made them too famous in terms of the public. We got an animal that have got highly developed brain, highly developed sensors. These animals not only had keen hearing. They had exeptional good eyesight.
A respected professor of chemical engineering has resigned from his post at a British University after it was revealed that he had been leading a double life as a porn star. Professor Nicholas Goddard, who is 61, has been teaching at Manchester University for 25 years. He was apparently exposed when one of his students recognized him in a pornographic film. BBC news.